Yesterday I posted a 1972 interview with songwriting great Harry Warren. Today let’s look backwards forty years from that time to 1933 and watch a Vitaphone “Pepper Pot” short called “Harry Warren; America’s Foremost Composer’. In it, Warren appears at a piano in a beautiful art deco setting, surrounded by
In 1972, Ian Whitcomb–singer, songwriter, music historian and show-biz gadabout–interviewed the great songwriter Harry Warren. Above is fifteen minutes of that video and it’s a real delight. Warren tells stories in his off-the-cuff, gruff Brooklyn manner and plays and sings a few of his songs. At the end, he and
Okay, I took a week’s vacation from posting and now I’m back. I was with family and, much as I love them, I kind of wish I was George Gershwin in the spring of 1937 on vacation with Paulette Goddard. The two of them were discreetly involved in a romance
Here’s a couple of precious minutes showing Judy Garland during a run-through for an appearance on ‘Hollywood Palace’, singing ‘What the World Needs Now (Is Love Sweet Love)’. Her listless performance is a hell of a lot more fun than many singers all out, full-blown performances though its hard to
Aired on April 28, 1966, this one-hour special featuring Tony Bennett at the peak of his (first) career was sponsored by Singer Sewing Machines and NBC and is–in my opinion–the best television musical special ever made. In addition to Tony the starry supporting cast includes Buddy Rich, Paul Horne, Milt
Joe Piscopo may not have left much of a mark on comedy but he did achieve something that cannot be superseded by any other comic; his impression of Jerry Lewis. His Jerry is the Jerry at the late stage of his career–the smarmy telethon host in his tux with shoe-polished
Watching the above reel of TV cigarette commercials from the early 1960s, one might get the impression that the product being peddled wasn’t really a cigarette, but more of a combination of perfume, cold tossed mediterranean salad, herb-infused lemonade and a good massage. Words like ‘flavorful’ and ‘relaxing’ and ‘rich’
Here’s a brief, fascinating British Pathe newsreel from 1930 showing us The Handley Page HP–42 (nicknamed the Hannibal), a giant British four-engine biplane airliner designed by Handley Page. Introduced by Imperial Airways in 1931, it was the largest airliner in the world at the time. Built mostly from metal and fabric, it was
Apropos of yesterday’s post showing the evolution of RKO studio’s logos, here’s a reel of logos from some of the most obscure in-the-gutter strictly-from -hunger low-rent low-budget low-self-esteem studios the movie business ever created. Names like ‘Invincible Pictures’, ‘Mascot Studios’, ‘Chesterfield Pictures’ sound like companies invented by a novelist for
Here’s fifteen minutes of different logos–both opening and closing–of RKO movies. I’m sure you’ll be tempted after a few minutes to either turn it off or scrub through them, but I urge you to set aside fifteen minutes and stare, glassy-eyed, at the screen. Something odd happens as they progress–they